Shirley: Well, hi, Michael. How are you?

Michael: I’m great. How are you doing?

Shirley: Doing well, thank you.

Michael: Nice to talk to you again.

Shirley: It’s always nice to talk to you. Yes.

Michael: Good. Well, I’m glad you called. You’re still doing the gift baskets, I see, and we’ve got about minutes together. I’ll help you out the best way I can, if I can. I know you’re struggling and you’ve got a tough little business. I have to be honest with you. I think it’s pretty tough because there are so many people doing it. You know? It’s like a commodity, kind of, and I’m sure that’s frustrating.

Shirley: It’s frustrating, yes. It has been a pretty good holiday season though.

Michael: Good.

Shirley: And, I have repeat customers. They like my customer service, so that’s good.

Michael: That is good. That’s excellent, and you’re not trying to make a million dollars off of it, you enjoy doing it, and you’d like to make something and at least, grow the business consistently and maybe sell it down the road, right?

Shirley: Yes.

Michael: So, it was interesting, in the questions I had asked you, when it comes to growing your business, what was your biggest challenge? And you said, to date, it had been the fear of someone stealing my drop shipper’s gift basket images, which you signed a contract to protect them and never reproduce and sell the gift baskets on the side. So, when you first started it, they were really worried about the images being stolen and used by other designers to sell their gift baskets?

Shirley: Yes.

Michael: So, that must have been a real challenge if you couldn’t use the images to show your other customers what the thing looks like. Is that what was occurring? You couldn’t really show them the designs of what they looked like before they bought?

Shirley: No, actually, the images were on my website and I had them blocked so no one could copy and paste the images or save them themselves, and someone finally said, “Well, don’t worry about that.” You know, “The drop shipper should worry about protecting their own material. You need to sell your baskets.” So, I did unblock it and so, people could copy and paste my phone number and anything else they wanted.

Michael: Oh, it was a challenge because if someone came to your website, they wanted to be able to copy the image and share it with someone and say, “Hey, we want to get this for Mom. Here’s what it looks like.” and they want to send the image and show the other party. Is that what you’re referring to?

Shirley: Right. Yes. I just had to sign a contract to protect the images, so no designers or anyone would take the image and duplicate it.

Michael: I see. One solution, even though it looks like you’ve got it solved, but you could take each one of those images and produce a watermark on the image. It’s the image. You can still see the gift basket and the design, but you can have in a watermark, like a white kind of shadowy background, you could have your website. It doesn’t obstruct the image and it keeps other people from stealing it. They would have to really alter the whole image to get the name of your website off of it. Did you realize that?

Shirley: No. How would you do that? free for days. The website is called TechSmith. T-e-c-h-S-m-i-t-h, that’s the company and they have a piece of software called Snagit, S-n-a-g-i-t, Snagit, and And what it is, the tool has been around for a long time. Let’s say you went to any kind of website and you like the image. It allows you to take your mouse and draw a box around it and snag it. So, you can snag, take the image off of any webpage very simply, and then you can save that image as a .gif file or a .jpeg or a .pdf or whatever. It’s just a very useful tool for grabbing information that maybe with somebody. Now, there’s a little editing section where you can pull up the image. So, you’re editing photos and you have the ability to put a watermark on the image. So, this has always been a concern for professional photographers. Just like when the kids go to school and a photographer comes in and photographs each one of the students and then, they send the proofs home to the parents. Well, professional photographers are always worried about the parents just now, with the scanners, taking their photograph and scanning it, and then, once they have a scanned image, they could steal the photograph and there’s no reason to buy the photographs from the photographer. So, what they do to protect themselves is they’ll put “Proof”. It’ll say P-r-o-o-f across the top of the photo. So, no one wants the photo with the words “Proof” on it. So, that’s how they protect their image. Well, you could do the same thing, but it wouldn’t be so ugly. You could have a very light...It’s called a watermark. It’s kind of like when you hold a five and a ten-dollar bill up to the light, you can kind of see the face in the bill. It’s not real obvious. So, it’s just a way to alter the photo. To add a watermark, you would put your website on it. So, if it does get passed around, anyone who’s looking at the design of the basket has your website right there on the image and they can go back to your site if they like your design. So, it would take a lot of work for someone who steals that image to alter and get that watermark off. So, each one of your images should have that. I’ll do one for you after the call and I’ll send it to you, and I’ll show you exactly what it would look like, Let’s see, holiday baskets...These are all images from the company?

Shirley: Yes.

Michael: Yeah, each one of these images, you can do a little watermark in the corner or somewhere on the image. I’ll show you. I’ll send you one and you’re going to

Shirley: Yes.

Michael: Okay, so you save the image and then you import it into your Snagit editor, and then you type in something, some kind of watermark that would protect the you have a way the image can track them back to your website where they can get that gift basket. I think that’d be real important to do, and very simple too, very simple.

Shirley: Good.

Michael: That’s one idea. This has really held you back. You said today that the fear of someone stealing the drop shipper’s gift basket images, which you signed a contract to protect them and never reproduce and sell the gift baskets on the side. explained that I would like to have a Facebook and Google Plus page for my business. To do this, I would like to use the images freely and not worry about who is stealing what. They came to the decision that there could be no more theft than there already has been and gave us their blessing to do what I had to do to sell the product.” So, you were able to set up a Facebook and a Google Plus page?

Shirley: Yes.

Michael: Good. Has it helped sales? It says you’re doing better than you have in the past. Do you think that has helped?

Shirley: Well, actually, I haven’t had the time to set the pages up just yet, because I just talked to the drop shipper about it when this all started. But, I’m sure that it will. There’s no doubt that it will. My site is just doing better in general through the years.

Michael: Good, good, good. Did you say that your drop shipper has given you a larger profit margin in the last year, so you were able to get increased profit margin on what you’re selling?

Shirley: Yes.

Shirley: I’m not sure. It’s just that they put a larger profit margin on the baskets. So, I don’t know if they reduced their wholesale prices or they just ended up having a larger profit than there was. So, instead of $, now I’m making much more.

Michael: Okay. Good, good, good.

Shirley: Does that make sense?

Michael: Yes, it does make sense. Maybe they wanted to encourage their resellers to promote more so there would be more in it for you, or they wanted to reward their distributors. Do you know how many people they have out marketing their gift baskets?

Shirley: You know, I don’t know how many people are marketing it. There’s quite a number though. I know that. They advertise in a lot of places.

Shirley: .

Michael: Okay. Good, good. How often do you keep in contact with them?

Shirley: Usually once a week or less.

Michael: What are you sending out every week?

Shirley: Like, four or five baskets on a page with a % off. I don’t really write anything other than holiday baskets or whatever it happens to be.

Michael: Well, Shirley, I bet your subscribers would like to get to know you a little bit.

Shirley: Maybe so.

Michael: I think it would be really good for you to maybe, introduce yourself and come behind the mystery and talk a little bit about your story. “I’m Shirley Bass, and you know, I’ve always been a little bit shy, and I’ve always wanted to keep it business, but there’s so many great people on my list, I just wanted to actually, officially introduce myself and just say hi. I’m not trying to sell anything. I just wanted to simply say hi and I hope you have just a wonderful day. And, if it’s okay with you, I’d love to be maybe, sharing, some personal stories about my gift basket business that I think you’ll enjoy.” And, I think people would love that.

Shirley: I do too.

Michael: You’re listening to an exclusive interview found on Michael Senoff’s It’ll be fun. I mean, I am having the best time of the last couple of days. You know, I haven’t done interviews like this or consultations like this in a long time. I kind of got burned out and over the summer, I kind of took a break. But, I’m just having the best time talking to my subscribers like yourself, and I got off the phone with a wonderful lady named Fabiana from Spain and a gentleman from Nigeria, and all kinds of great people doing all kinds of interesting things and it’s a lot of fun.

Shirley: I could see that. I know it’s fun for me.

Michael: Yeah. And so, you know, that’s what people are looking for. I know you’re selling gift baskets and a lot of other people are selling gift baskets, and you’ve got people on your list. You know, there’s a saying that “the money is in the list”, but the money isn’t in the list. The money is in the relationship with the list, and your people on your list can’t get to know you or can’t have a relationship with you if they don’t even know who you are. I mean, you are a real person and you need to come out from behind that name and start bonding personally with your customers. Imagine if you had a physical retail store and you were working in that retail store all the time, and your customers come in and they say, “Shirley, oh my, I’ve got a wedding I’ve got to go to. I need to get a gift basket for this.” You know, you who’s getting married or you need a gift basket for this or they‘re going up to Oregon for Thanksgiving and they’re going to see the uncle that everyone can’t stand, and “I don’t really want to do it, but I’m going to bring a gift basket.” All these great opportunities that you would be discussing face-to-face with your walk-in customers. It’s kind of like when you go get your hair done. Do you go out and get your hair done or your nails done with one person that you’ve been going to for a long time?

Shirley: Yes.

Michael: And, you feel like you know them. You go to them because you feel like you’ve got a relationship with them and you pick up the conversation where you left off the last time. They’re just kind of like a friend, you know? And that’s what keeps you coming back and bonded with the same hair stylist or the same manicurist or what have you. Well, you can do the same thing. Your customers can start bonding with you a little bit more, and you know what? If you do that, they’ll always come back to you, just like you go to the same person to get your hair done year after year after year, and whenever it’s time to get a gift basket, they’re going to come back to you because you have the relationship with them and the other , gift basket companies don’t, because they’ve never taken the time to share any information about themselves or be willing to be open and listen to the customers on your list. You have customers on your list. Okay? Every one of those customers has probably to opportunities to buy a gift basket for some kind of occasion every year. You’re talking thousand of opportunities for gift baskets to be bought from you, and when you have that relationship with that customer and you’ve really bonded and they start coming to you, then they’ll start referring others. “Oh, call Shirley. You need to get a gift basket from her. We got Rod and Sandra one for Thanksgiving. They loved it.” And, they’re going to start referring people to you. But, if there’s no bond and no relationship with these customers and they’re just place for a gift basket, you’re going to be just like every other gift basket. But, you have an opportunity to start connecting with that list and it’s kind of uncomfortable at first. You’ve got to be a little vulnerable at first, but I think you’ll find that you could really grow your business and generate more sales because you’re willing to kind of put yourself out there and bond with them. Does that make sense?

Shirley: Oh, that just sounds wonderful to me. I really got excited about that. I would love to bond with them. You know, I’ve heard not to become really familiar with the customer. Where do you draw the line, Michael? I mean, you gave me a lot of great ideas. pick up the phone if you want. It would be a little labor intensive. You know, you have only customers. That’s not a ton. Okay? If you did make that part of your day and if you called three or four a day or you did ten a week, it wouldn’t take you too long to get through and actually have a personal introduction with them. And now, you’d have to have a reason for a call. But, you can do it through the

Shirley: Yes.

Michael: I’d just come up with just ordinary stuff in your day or situations where customers story about yourself. You’ve got to keep it short. You know, it can’t be super long. It could be a story about how you got into the gift basket. It could be a simple thing like, headline, “I’ve made a mistake.” And then, you say, “This is Shirley Bass, and I’ve made a mistake and I owe you an apology. You know, the last three years, I’ve been offering gift baskets and selling all over the world. I realized that I have never actually taken a few minutes of my time to thank you for trying one of our gift baskets.” And, you can maybe say, “I just loved gift baskets. I can remember when I got my first gift basket. It was in -whatever and someone brought it to me and I opened the door and I just couldn’t believe it. It was filled with all kinds of goodies and a little plant and the most decadent cheeses and chocolates, and I love chocolate. I’m a chocoholic. And, I just remember the warm feeling of being snuggled up on the couch eating my chocolates and trying to decide what yummy snack I’m going to eat next. And, that’s kind of the feeling that I got when I wanted to get into this gift basket business, and this is the feeling that your loved one, your daughter or your husband, or your family will experience when you get them a gift basket for any kind of special occasion.” the corner and here are two new ideas for gift baskets that you can bring when you travel across the country and spend Christmas with your family or your loved ones.” And, send them to the link and give them maybe a reason to buy. Or if you look at all the different products in the gift basket, the cheeses and the meats and the different things that come in there. Each one of those products has a little story and a history behind it. You know that?

Shirley: Yes.

Michael: Every one of them has a history and you could do little stories. Just do a little quick research on the history of the brand, you know, the history of whatever the products are and that’s interesting. And, you could do the history of Pepperidge Farm’s cheese sticks. “Did you know that Mildred and George Pepperidge used to take a white covered wagon and deliver their tasty snacks door to door through the countryside all the way from the 1800s to the 1820s? And, it was this one special recipe that was handed down from Mildred’s great aunt about a special cheese snack that she had heard from a friend in Germany who came to visit and she started baking these cheese snacks. Then all her neighbors started wanting them and she would bring them to church and social functions and her cheese snacks became the talk of the town. And, these are the very same cheese snacks we offer in our Christmas Health Heart [inaudible :] Gourmet Gift Basket, and you can experience the great taste in them too, because Christmas is right around the corner and you don’t want to come to the home empty-handed.” So, every product in your gift baskets has a story that can be a subject of an and people will read it because no one else is doing that, and guess what? You’ll get to know your products inside and out. Imagine if you understood and knew the history of each one of the products that came in each one of your gift baskets. Wouldn’t that be cool? what to say and you just opened up a whole new world for me.

Michael: I know it’s hard when you’re trying to think of it. It can be hard when you get stuck, but you’ve got to keep that radar open. But. that may be a good idea is the history of each one of those little products, just short and sweet, the story. you link it to your product or to a special offer or to an impending event, whether it’s Christmas or Valentine’s Day or Thanksgiving or Labor Day or Memorial Day or all the occasions that one would buy a gift basket, birthdays, anniversaries. And, you can do this. It’ll take a little practice to get going. It’ll feel kind of weird and uncomfortable. But, you’ve got the ability to do it. I’ll get on your list and if Send it to me. I’ll review it for you.

Shirley: Yes, that’s okay.

Michael: So, how do we get Shirley Bass to stand apart from all the other gift basket resellers out on the internet? We try and build the relationship with our customers and we entertain and educate and do something different that no one else is doing. For more exclusive interviews on business, marketing, advertising and

Shirley: Wow. Okay.

Michael: That will separate you from everyone, but the most important thing, that relationship, if you can really work hard on bonding, you don’t need a whole lot of customers. Do you have customers who buy gift baskets all the time for all kinds of stuff? Do you know a couple of customers like that who really order a lot of gift baskets?

Shirley: Businesses.

Michael: I see.

Shirley: And, it’s usually “Get Well”.

Michael: Oh, it is. Okay. How much of a majority is that for your sales, “Get Well”?

Shirley: Probably about %.

Michael: % are businesses who will get a gift basket for an employee who may be sick?

Shirley: Yes.

Michael: That’s interesting. And, where do you see some of the other sales coming from?

Shirley: Teachers. I know there are teachers, and because I do not sell alcohol products, I don’t know how I would say that. People of religion visit my website because I do not carry alcohol products. That sets me apart in that way, and a lot of teachers.

Michael: The teachers are buying for who?

Shirley: Their children or friends, “Get Well” baskets.

Michael: Okay. So, you’ve got teachers. You’ve got the “Get Well”. What’s another category that seems to be pretty popular?

Shirley: Women’s gift baskets.

Michael: Let’s talk about that. What’s selling in the women’s gift baskets? Like, the soaps and the relaxing ones?

Shirley: Yes, baths and the spa gift baskets.

Michael: The spa, and the women will get them for their other women friends or associates?

Shirley: Yes, and men will also.

Michael: Men will get them for women, yeah.

Shirley: Yes.

Michael: Okay. Very interesting. Question, when a sale comes in, are you doing it through PayPal or Authorize.net? Who handles all the payment stuff?

Shirley: Either/or, Authorize.net and PayPal, however they prefer to pay.

Michael: What percentage would you say does PayPal compared to Authorize.net?

Shirley: % of less.

Michael: % is PayPal?

Shirley: Yes.

Michael: So, must people do the Authorize.net?

Shirley: Yes.

Michael: So, how many customers do you have in your customer list since you started? How many transactions?

Shirley: There’s about or over. buyers at one time?

Michael: Yes.

Shirley: Yes. I can do that.

Shirley: Yes.

Michael: Are those mixed up with buyers and non-buyers?

Shirley: It’s because I haven’t updated the list.

Michael: Oh.

Shirley: Part of that too, is because part of them are non-buyers and the recipients of the gift.

Michael: Okay. I see. After they check out on their Authorize.net page, where are they redirected? Do you know?

Shirley: No.

Michael: You don’t know what page it takes them to after they pay?

Shirley: My site kicks out a receipt for them, but other than that, no, I don’t have any idea.

Michael: Does Authorize.net...it sends them like, a receipt of their transaction. Right?

Shirley: Yes. I always thought my website did, but maybe it’s Authorize.net.

Shirley: Right. broadcast to all plus the , even though some of the are already on the ? Are you set up to do that?

Shirley: Well, I could put it in an Excel sheet, if that’s what you mean.

Shirley: Yes, and I had it in an Excel sheet.

Michael: Oh, it’s only on an Excel. So, you don’t have, when someone comes to the site,

Shirley: I do, but it still just goes to my website, and I just got an account with AWeber.

Michael: Okay. Yes.

Shirley: So, that will change. one-on-one, but you need to start building that list in AWeber, so you could do a your list, I thought you had the names like, already on an AWeber account,

Shirley: Well, I did have it in Infusionsoft, and I just could never figure it out. So...

Michael: Oh. Okay. Have you ever done any kind of postcard mailing or anything?

Shirley: No.

Michael: But, you have past customers with the names and addresses in...Are most of your customers all here in the U.S.?

Shirley: Yes. Some in Canada, but only a small percentage.

Michael: You know, sometimes it’s a lot easier to resell an existing buyer. The customers who maybe buy a “Get Well” basket maybe like, a one-time thing, but maybe, the women buyers and the teacher buyers, these are some buyers...maybe a postcard, and I know it’s a little bit of a pain in the butt, but it’s not that hard. You have all the names and addresses and buyer names of all the people who have ordered your gift baskets. You’ve got past buyers. You could do a postcard. I mean, how much is a postcard today? For probably ¢ with the paper and the mailing, you wouldn’t even have to touch or lick a stamp. You could do it all through the U.S. Post Office, where they have a partner where you could mail out a postcard. You could design it on the site. They’ll do your postage. You can upload the database and just a couple of clicks of the button and your postcard will be mailed to all your customers, and it may be about ¢ per postcard. You wouldn’t have to mail all of them, but you could mail maybe of them for $ with a special offer or something to your previous buyers, I would maybe keep it more like a letter, you know, introducing yourself. “I’m Shirley Bass and you ordered a gift basket from us in the past.” Maybe you could try and get some of those people on your AWeber list. I’m just thinking of ways, simple ways for you to connect with those buying customers.

Shirley: Let me ask you is it okay to take these people because they’ve ordered and I address?

Shirley: Right. okay to do it through the mail.

Shirley: Okay. That was a question.

Michael: Yeah, you could do it through the mail, but that’s going to be a problem because what you could do is, you’ve got to figure out how, before someone places an order or in the order process, and I’m sure if you talk to the experts at your cart, you know, who handles your payments, call them, Authorize.net, and just explain that you’re one of their users and you want to talk to their technical support and And, they may even have it within their software where they integrate the opt-in. They may be able to integrate Authorize.net with AWeber. Or, you could call AWeber. They have wonderful customer service. Say, “I have Authorize.net. I want to start building my customer list with an opt-in form. How can we do this?”

Shirley: Okay.

Michael: Talk to AWeber. Go to AWeber.com site. They have great customer service. the same thing with Authorize.net. Every time there’s a sale made, you want to your newsletter where you may be sending out special offers and promotions. But, they have to agree to that, and you can get them to agree to that in the order process.

Shirley: Okay. That really helps solve a lot of fear, I guess.

Michael: Yeah, because we’re talking about building your list and you’re thinking, “Well, from now on as your business moves forward. You can certainly mail your past customers. Do you have their phone numbers too?

Shirley: Yes.

Michael: Maybe the personal touch would be the best way, and if you did ten phone calls a day, because phone calls are so inexpensive, and having your voice on the other end and just introducing yourself and just say, “You ordered a gift basket from me...” You know, and you’re just following up, and “How did you like it?” And, you just wanted to say hi. That’s it. Or, you could leave a message and just start trying to build some connections with that customer list. You never know who you’re going to meet, or you never know that you’re going to call at a certain time where they need another one, or they may be in a situation working for a company where they need ten of them, or...you just don’t know. So, you have to be talking and bonding and making whatever.

Michael: Good. I’m out of time because I have another call in literally, like, three minutes, Shirley. I know I’ve talked a lot and I didn’t let you talk that much and I’ve talked and I hope, if you implement some of this stuff, I’m sure we can get your sales up.

Shirley: Thank you, Michael, with all my heart. I thank you. I’ll review it. You just let me know. Just, “Here’s what I’ve put together. I’m thinking about sending out...” Now, I know we don’t have the list up into AWeber yet, but start doing them anyway, because eventually, you know, if you got this all set up today, and I’m not saying you will have it set up today, but in days, you may have or buys, they’re in the auto-responder, and every seventh day or every two weeks neat story about the history of one of your products. You know what I’m saying?

Shirley: Yes. You’ve opened up a whole new world for me. me. And, I’ll review it and I’ll give you my little spin on it.

Shirley: Okay. Yes.

Michael: Alright, Shirley. Well, take care of yourself, and it was very nice talking to you, speakers on your computer?

Shirley: Yes, I do.

Michael: Okay. Very good. Have a wonderful day and very nice talking to you again.

Shirley: Thank you, Michael. Have a good day.

Michael: Alright. Bye bye.